Sunday, April 17, 2011

Working Vacation Part 1 (April 11th-ish)

I remember lying in bed with Cory one night in Hampton several years back and asking him, "Do you want to be farmers?" Cory replied in his usually laconic way, "no." He wasn't anywhere near as sold as I was on even moving to a rural location...doesn't like a lot of change, that one.

It's funny how he is now. He loves it here and loves all of the work. This quote is true:

There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness. Gelett Burgess

His vacation began this past Saturday. So far we have both gotten quite a bit done. He has put in the drainpipe under the house and I demolished part of four doorways on Saturday. Sunday he built a pigpen and I began work on the new arbor posts. Yesterday he worked on the fields and I dug holes for the posts and cleaned some of the garden beds. Sunday night we squeezed in dinner out and yesterday Sam prepared a picnic for our lunch.

This is vacation to us. I thought I would share a few of my thoughts on vacations American style so you maybe understand a little of why we aren't taking one.

First of all, vacation for most of the population includes a combination of eating out garbage food, observing (look at this, look at that), and traveling. Usually it also involves one of my least favorite things- the "public." A small percentage of people engage in a recreational physical activity that they enjoy along the way.

Here is what I think:

First, there is not a hotel bed on the planet that has not had goodness knows what kind of infectious fluid on it from goodness knows who and the bathrooms and MY GOSH the carpet can't be much better.

Second, Did I mention the public? Yes it comes only second to infectious fluids in my list of things to avoid.

Third, travel. Why? What exactly are we looking for? I'll tell you what I am looking for- a peaceful beautiful setting. One of the reasons we decided we wanted to live in a peaceful beautiful setting is so that we wouldn't have to take a vacation, travel, and interact with the public just to see a peaceful beautiful setting only two weeks out of the year....not to mention packing, car time, motions sickness, wasted time, fatigue- bleck.

Fourth, money. We never seem to have extra. In our almost fifteen years of marriage we have taken very few vacations. I often have conversations in my head that go something like this, "For that price we could BUY (insert the list of things we need and want) and have something that lasts longer than a one week experience.

Fifth, food. We eat nutritious healthy food 7 days of the week. If we eat out it is usually only once a week. My belief is that if you are building and nourishing your body with 20 of your 21 meals and 14 of your snacks, one mystery meal of restaurant food is something your strong body can handle and recover from. A week of restaurant food is not only expensive, but kind of a gut punch (literally) to a healthy body.

Sixth, observing. Sightseeing is nice but kind of exhausting when the only other thing you have done is eat toxic food all day and walk around. I would be one to opt for a vacation that included something active but I also like for my activities to produce something (which is also why I thinks sports are so useless- but that is another topic).

Seventh, and worth mentioning again, the public. Have you ever been somewhere and an obnoxious loud teenager ruin your tranquil time or a hoochie mama dressed like a hooker decide to park herself next to your family's outing? Did you pay for that outing? Not fun.

I will admit I have always wanted to do some type of dream tropical vacation- one where there was no public, just us with a hut on the beach. I checked on the price of private islands but they are just a wee bit much. I was lamenting over our upcoming anniversary earlier in the year and then I remembered something (how easily we forget God's blessings): three summers ago God gave us a gift.

When we first left Hampton the house we rented for 6 months was right on the river and had its own beach.

Cory is not much of a beach person, but the kids and I could wake up, throw on our swimsuits and mozey down to swim. He did like the campfires.

and the bonfires.

I told Mom we were living at the Kennedy Compound. It was a glorious 6 months.

While floating on our floaties one lazy afternoon I told Quinn, "Well, son, this is the life- this is what people seek to attain through wealth: living on the beach with a free schedule to do whatever you want." Quinn wisely replied that it was great and everything but there are a lot of hurting kids in the world that need our help... so very true. My heart smiled. That boy is growing in wisdom.

Anyway, the point is I actually did have my dream beach vacation after all.

And-

We have things we are trying to do here- physical and spiritual things. The work, the setting, the experiences and the purposes make it an extremely gratifying combination. There are no extra costs and the food is superb if I do say so myself. More on what we are doing coming soon...